What's left is footage:
the hours before
Camille, 1969—hurricane
parties, palm trees leaning
in the wind,
fronds blown black.
a woman’s hair. Then after:
the vacant lots
boats washes ashore, a swamp
where graves had been. I recall
How we huddled all night in our small house
moving between rooms,
emptying pots filled with rain.
The next day, our house—
On its cinderblocks—seemed to float
In the flooded yard, no foundation
beneath us, nothing I could see
tying us
to the land
In the water, our reflection
trembled,
disappeared
when I bent to touch it.